"What physical innovations revolutionised your wargaming?" Topic

This is not about rules but about the phisical innovations that revolutionised your wargaming. Here's my list, it is certainly very personal, in sort of order of merit.

Kallistra hex terrain (no commecial connection). Hex terrain has been around since the first Featherstone books. I made my own, and at one time there were several manfcacturers. However Kallistra is the only one that has stood the test of time producing modular almost indestructable terrain. Without it complex near real terrain would not be possible.

The 3D printer, it freed us from the tyrany of incompetent sculptors who's grasp of realirty is a best tenious, the inability to understand physical proportions set down since Leonardo Da Vinci and a lack of grasp of scale leading to the infamious "Scale creep". On top of that freedom from the tryany of 2 part metal moulded moulded figure with anotomicaly imnmpossible poses and prone to breakage and chiping. Not to mention now it is possible to produce models of obscure minis that would never be commecially viable any other way.

Fold Flat Terrain – While It is my idea it did revolutioise my wargaming (inspired by Lionel Tarrs photos in Feathersones Books), Fold flat buildings, the ability to have "vilages" of 10 even 20 houses in dozens of different styles without needing more than a couple of box files to store them in.

Articulated hedges (hedges that hinge)that makes setting up a battalefield from the late 1700's in Europe much faster and less tedious.

The production of modular foam carry cases, far better thahn its predicessor which was the previous inovation, the magnetic sheet.

The D20 die, it was not around in the early days bvut it allowed new faster rule systems to be created, A bit contentious even in this list.

In the also rans, Lazer cutters, I have one but it lies idle 99% of the time it was replaced too soon by the infinitely more flexible 3D printer in my world.

"Really useful box compamy" – integrated box system, it makes carrying stuff around so much less hasstle.

The Phone, computers and the internet, but many will not have been around in those very early days.

So what is your list I am sure it will not be the same as mine?

Resin casting. The ability to make anything in massive numbers without the need for 3D printing infrastructure, but able to hit the mark on detail of any sort. Not always a solution, but darn hard to beat.

Schwabian Grenadier – Tables to play on have been around for me since I first joined a club so for me not that new. Agreed as a kid I played on the floor with a green plastic "cloth and foam stepped hills. It's got to be nearly 50 years I have been playing on a table, but maybe I'm just a youngster.

Handheld calculator.

Magnetic tape under the bases of figures to store them in steel paper lined box files.

Texturing figure bases with colored sand: it elevates the appearance of even my simple, block painted, Dip'ed minis. A good looking base, elevates a figure's overall appearance, IME.

The Dip Technique and the Magic Wash technique! The new contrast/Speed Paints are a variation on both of these older techniques. They all aid in speeding up the painting process, tremendously, for those of us who want painted minis, but who do not enjoy painting so much.

Acrylic paints, as opposed to oil-/solvent-based paints! I still have a couple of my first painted minis, from the early 1980's, painted with Testors solvent-based model paints. They are truly awful… I applied the paint directly to the bare, unprimed, metal (metallic lead – GASP!).

My first piece of indoor/outdoor carpet, to use as a ground cover base. The first piece covered my Ping Pong Table, entirely, but it had lines in its weave pattern. I replaced it after 20+ ears, with a newer, prettier piece, without any patterns/lines in it. Both can be, literally, taken outside and hosed off with water, to clean them; they can be vacuumed, or even shampooed, if necessary. "Durable," is an understatement! I took my old piece (still like new), cut it up, and covered the wooden stairs in my garage, to make them safer, nicer looking, etc. Cheers!

Neoprene gaming mats.

the D20 plus all the other polyhedral dice now available.

Internet

Another vote for Acrylic paints. Far better than enamels. Less stinky too.

acrylic paints
Multi-sided dice (We used to play D&D with all D6s)
Future Floor Wax for washes !

Green felt for table covering. (Previously used painted particle board. Really, for me that was a big change.

Hard plastic figure kits making collecting armies, particularly cavalry, much more affordable.

Pre-cut mag bases.

GeoHex
'puzzle' mats (foam floor mats)

3d Printer

I use the mats (turfed) as the base for my GeoHex.

3D printing is changing my collection, especially for vehicles and terrain (15mm)

The Internet for gathering information, shopping.
Acrylic paints, much better than the smelly stuff, but I still use some old colors I like.
Spray paint, did not have that in the 1960s.
D20 custom dice, I ordered a set in 5% increments, perfect for wargaming.
Calculator, great for figuring the odds.
X-Acto knives and sprue cutters. Back in the day we used nail clippers.
Cutting mats reduce the wear and tear on the desktop.
Model Master glue in the triangle box tube thingy with the little pipe to squeeze out the glue.
Super glue.
5 minute epoxy.
Resin casting.

Some day I hope 3D printing will live up to the hype, but not today.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek
Bunker Talk blog

Sewing Machine for hemming ground cloths
Magnetic sheet for lining storage boxes
Color Printer and Laminator for unit cards

Word processing programs and high speed printers. Makes producing rules, charts, cards, etc much, much easier. A few of you may remember the very early mimeograph rules with their slight ammonia smell when they were fresh off the machine.
Also, scanning capabilities for home printers and the really top notch copy machines.

Future Floor Wax for washes

Well, that's all over now. <grumble>

My wargaming has never been revolutionized.

My painting was transformed by affordable, good quality, acrylic paints.

Wow that is an interesting set. Future Floor W\ax washes must be a US thing, nevere heard of it in the UK. or it may be me.

As far as I know, Acrylic Medium can be used in place of Future Floor Polish: add the acrylic paint color of choice, and you have your custom color wash.

Rich Bliss, I agree about the sewing machine! My wife bought a Serger, years ago. I bought forest and swamp patterned cloths, cut and finished the edges with my wife's 4-thread Serger Sewing Machine, such that they will never fray (rolled hem edge). I made oddly shaped ovals of the fabric pieces. I lay them down on my ground cloth, placing cake decorator trees, and aquatic swamp plants atop them, to dress them up, and make clear what they represent. A Serger is an amazing piece of mechanical technology (freakin' magic!). Cheers!

Resin Casting is an interesting one and again it may be a US thing. In my "!ancients" era many years ago I did have some resin castings scenery/buildings. Resin was universally hated as it was all you could get, always had air holes and was as fragile as hell. Everybody was glad to see the back of it replaced by Lazer cut or later 3D prints..

It surprised me nobody has Lazer cut buildings, they did nothing for me I had moved on to my particular revolution Fold Flat card, but for a while (and for some in my club even now) they were far better than resin castings they replaced. All to soon however 3D prints seem to have replaced them.

Resin castings are far better than MDF buildings as they have texture and depth.

Modern resin casting doesn't have air holes, neither are they fragile. I would take resin over MDF any day for anything other than Western Town buildings.

As far as I know, Acrylic Medium can be used in place of Future Floor Polish: add the acrylic paint color of choice, and you have your custom color wash.

Every one of the things Future could do can be done with a different medium, but there are no other products known to the modeling world as useful, flexible, well-understood, or cheap as Future.

Since Future was really just a specific formulation of acrylic medium, it must surely be possible to create an exact facsimile for art/modeling purposes (except maybe without the scent…). One may already exist, it's just hundreds of expensive experiments to find out.

UshCha – In the UK what Americans call Future was originally called Klear or Krystal Klear. In the US it went through several names, and hasn't been called "Future Floor Polish" for many years, so it may have gone through similar gyrations in other markets.

- Ix

PS: The oth

For me:

Pre-cut bases, mousepad/felt gaming mats, and my 3d printer.

Who makes this Fold Flat Terrain? I have seen paper buildings but once put together are certainly not fold flat!

I also wish I could get Kalistra in the US without paying more for shipping than the product!!!

Another vote for Klear/Future (and acrylic paints) – got far more painted to an acceptable standard once I found it. I don't know how I am going to manage without it. I have a faint hope that there might be another bottle at the back of a cupboard or fallen behind a bookcase or something, but unless that turns up I am going to have to think carefully about what's in the priority queue for painting. Or learn a new technique, of course.

DeRuyter Here we are fold flat terrain print yourself in 1/144 or 1/72 scale:-

link

UshCha my first resin buildings came from the UK. The resin there is very hard and brittle. It often left air bubbles.

Now resin on the continent is awesome. Firm and soft and smooth and bubble free. They use a different kind of resin and they use a vacuum chamber to remove the bubbles. And they don't sell product that has flaws.

In the US we have many resins and most are way better than the UK stuff, few molding flaws or bubbles, and that's more a function of the caster than the resin.

smooth-on.com

Mike Bunkermeister Creek

Spray primer and acrylic paint along pre-cut bases made troop prep faster and the troops better looking. The wide range of polyhedral dice changed game design, and word processing made it easier to write and modify rules.

Forgot to mention the pdf/foamcore combination which has done so much to produce cheap, fast decent-looking buildings.

I should also mention backsliding. The cold truth is bridges in the larger scales (20mm and up) are heavier, more expensive and more prone to damage than they were in the days of vac-formed terrain--or, for that matter, Marx playsets.

Future is pretty much just acrylic varnish. But it's intended to level so they add something to help. You can just use any acrylic medium or gloss varnish with some screen wash to reduce surface tension.
I still have two bottles of future.

I prefer other techniques including pre shading.

Off the top of my head and in no particular order -- airbrush, rotary tools (love my cordless pin vise), acrylic paints, contrast-style paints, CA adhesive, purpose-made dry brush brushes, sanding sticks, sprue cutters…

Geo-Hex, pre-cut bases, and the internet.

It is interesting that paint reatures in quite a few. I only remember the paint thing because finaly you could wash brushes in water. I guess it is where you see your hobby priorities.

HansPeterB – Now CA adhesive I can relate to, even if its horrid and brittle it was much easier than epoxy to glue those wretched multi part vehicles together.

Sprue cutters only bought a set in the last few weeks as an aid to cutting 3D printed supports. The models are getting more (Over?) complex and its better than pliers occationally. In hind site they would have been great for Airfix plastic figures.

robert piepenbrink – Backsliding – have to agree for me its over detailed models, not needed if all you do is play with them not considee them works of art. I would like to say scale creep but its always been there and never been fixed. Airfix Plastic had that problem. After 50+ years its sad sculptors are still out of touch with reality.

Pre-cut bases – I can't cut a straight line to save my life.

Order chits from Johnny Reb – before that you had to write orders

Pre-cut magnets for the bottom of my bases.- see above.

Silicon gel under figure bases to stop them sliding down hills.